and give me back to my husband. I endeavour to keep down my fretting, and
to leave all to Him, for he knows what is good for me better than I know
myself. Yet, I must confess, I find it a hard and heavy task to do so.
I am often much vexed, and I feel great sorrow when I hear some people in
this country say, that the slaves do not need better usage, and do not
want to be free.[16] They believe the foreign people,[17] who deceive them,
and say slaves are happy. I say, Not so. How can slaves be happy when they
have the halter round their neck and the whip upon their back? and are
disgraced and thought no more of than beasts?--and are separated from
their mothers, and husbands, and children, and sisters, just as cattle are
sold and separated? Is it happiness for a driver in the field to take down
his wife or sister or child, and strip them, and whip them in such a
disgraceful manner?--women that have had children exposed in the open
field to shame! There is no modesty or decency shown by the owner to his
slaves; men, women, and children are exposed alike. Since I have been here
I have often wondered how English people can go out into the West Indies
and act in such a beastly manner. But when they go to the West Indies,
they forget God and all feeling of shame, I think, since they can see and
do such things. They tie up slaves like hogs--moor[18] them up like cattle,
and they lick them, so as hogs, or cattle, or horses never were
flogged;--and yet they come home and say, and make some good people
believe, that slaves don't want to get out of slavery. But they put a
cloak about the truth. It is not so. All slaves want to be free--to be
free is very sweet. I will say the truth to English people who may read
this history that my good friend, Miss S----, is now writing down for me.
I have been a slave myself--I know what slaves feel--I can tell by myself
what other slaves feel, and by what they have told me. The man that says
slaves be quite happy in slavery--that they don't want to be free--that
man is either ignorant or a lying person. I never heard a slave say so. I
never heard a Buckra man say so, till I heard tell of it in England. Such
people ought to be ashamed of themselves. They can't do without slaves,
they say. What's the reason they can't do without slaves as well as in
England? No slaves here--no whips--no stocks--no punishment, except for
wicked people. They hire servants in England; and if they don't like them,
they send them away: they can't lick them. Let them work ever so hard in
England, they are far better off than slaves. If they get a bad master,
they give warning and go hire to another. They have their liberty. That's
just what we want. We don't mind hard work, if we had proper treatment,
and proper wages like English servants, and proper time given in the week
to keep us from breaking the Sabbath. But they won't give it: they will
have work--work--work, night and day, sick or well, till we are quite done
up; and we must not speak up nor look amiss, however much we be abused.
And then when we are quite done up, who cares for us, more than for a lame
horse? This is slavery. I tell it, to let English people know the truth;
and I hope they will never leave off to pray God, and call loud to the
great King of England, till all the poor blacks be given free, and slavery
done up for evermore.
[Footnote 16: The whole of this paragraph especially, is given as nearly as
was possible in Mary's precise words.]
[Footnote 17: She means West Indians.]
[Footnote 18: A West Indian phrase: to fasten or tie up.]
SUPPLEMENT
TO THE
HISTORY OF MARY PRINCE.
BY THE EDITOR.
Leaving Mary's narrative, for the present, without comment to the reader's
reflections, I proceed to state some circumstances connected with her case
which have fallen more particularly under my own notice, and which I
consider it incumbent now to lay fully before the public.
About the latter end of November, 1828, this poor woman found her way to
the office of the Anti-Slavery Society in Aldermanbury, by the aid of a
person who had become acquainted with her situation, and had advised her
to apply there for advice and assistance. After some preliminary
examination into the accuracy of the circumstances related by her, I went
along with her to Mr. George Stephen, solicitor, and requested him to
investigate and draw up a statement of her case, and have it submitted to
counsel, in order to ascertain whether or not, under the circumstances,
her freedom could be legally established on her return to Antigua. On this
occasion, in Mr. Stephen's presence and mine, she expressed, in very
strong terms, her anxiety to return thither if she could go as a free
person, and, at the same time, her extreme apprehensions of the fate that
would probably await her if she returned as a slave. Her words were, "I
would rather go into my grave than go back a slave to Antigua, though I
wish to go back to my husband very much--very much--very much! I am much
afraid my owners would separate me from my husband, and use me very hard,
or perhaps sell me for a field negro;--and slavery is too too bad. I would
rather go into my grave!"
The paper which Mr. Wood had given her before she left his house, was
placed by her in Mr. Stephen's hands. It was expressed in the following
terms:--
"I have already told Molly, and now give it her in writing,
in order that there may be no misunderstanding on her part,
that as I brought her from Antigua at her own request and
entreaty, and that she is consequently now free, she is of
course at liberty to take her baggage and go where she
pleases. And, in consequence of her late conduct, she must
do one of two things--either quit the house, or return to
Antigua by the earliest opportunity, as she does not evince
a disposition to make herself useful. As she is a stranger
in London, I do not wish to turn her out, or would do so,
as two female servants are sufficient for my establishment.
If after this she does remain, it will be only during her
good behaviour: but on no consideration will I allow her
wages or any other remuneration for her services.
"JOHN A. WOOD."
"London, August 18, 1828."
This paper, though not devoid of inconsistencies, which will be apparent
to any attentive reader, is craftily expressed; and was well devised to
serve the purpose which the writer had obviously in view, namely, to
frustrate any appeal which the friendless black woman might make to the
sympathy of strangers, and thus prevent her from obtaining an asylum, if
she left his house, from any respectable family. As she had no one to
refer to for a character in this country except himself, he doubtless
calculated securely on her being speedily driven back, as soon as the
slender fund she had in her possession was expended, to throw herself
unconditionally upon his tender mercies; and his disappointment in this
expectation appears to have exasperated his feelings of resentment towards
the poor woman, to a degree which few persons alive to the claims of
common justice, not to speak of christianity or common humanity, could
easily have anticipated. Such, at least, seems the only intelligible
inference that can be drawn from his subsequent conduct.
The case having been submitted, by desire of the Anti-Slavery Committee,
to the consideration of Dr. Lushington and Mr. Sergeant Stephen, it was
found that there existed no legal means of compelling Mary's master to
grant her manumission; and that if she returned to Antigua, she would
inevitably fall again under his power, or that of his attorneys, as a
slave. It was, however, resolved to try what could be effected for her by
amicable negotiation; and with this view Mr. Ravenscroft, a solicitor,
(Mr. Stephen's relative,) called upon Mr. Wood, in order to ascertain
whether he would consent to Mary's manumission on any reasonable terms,
and to refer, if required, the amount of compensation for her value to
arbitration. Mr. Ravenscroft with some difficulty obtained one or two
interviews, but found Mr. Wood so full of animosity against the woman, and
so firmly bent against any arrangement having her freedom for its object,
that the negotiation was soon broken off as hopeless. The angry
slave-owner declared "that he would not move a finger about her in this
country, or grant her manumission on any terms whatever; and that if she
went back to the West Indies, she must take the consequences."
This unreasonable conduct of Mr. Wood, induced the Anti-Slavery Committee,
after several other abortive attempts to effect a compromise, to think of
bringing the case under the notice of Parliament. The heads of Mary's
statement were accordingly engrossed in a Petition, which Dr. Lushington
offered to present, and to give notice at the same time of his intention
to bring in a Bill to provide for the entire emancipation of all slaves
brought to England with the owner's consent. But before this step was
taken, Dr. Lushington again had recourse to negotiation with the master;
and, partly through the friendly intervention of Mr. Manning, partly by
personal conference, used every persuasion in his power to induce Mr. Wood
to relent and let the bondwoman go free. Seeing the matter thus seriously
taken up, Mr. Wood became at length alarmed,--not relishing, it appears,
the idea of having the case publicly discussed in the House of Commons;
and to avert this result he submitted to temporize--assumed a demeanour of
unwonted civility, and even hinted to Mr. Manning (as I was given to
understand) that if he was not driven to utter hostility by the threatened
exposure, he would probably meet our wishes "in his own time and way."
Having gained time by these manoeuvres, he adroitly endeavoured to cool
the ardour of Mary's new friends, in her cause, by representing her as an
abandoned and worthless woman, ungrateful towards him, and undeserving of
sympathy from others; allegations which he supported by the ready
affirmation of some of his West India friends, and by one or two plausible
letters procured from Antigua. By these and like artifices he appears
completely to have imposed on Mr. Manning, the respectable West India
merchant whom Dr. Lushington had asked to negotiate with him; and he
prevailed so far as to induce Dr. Lushington himself (actuated by the
benevolent view of thereby best serving Mary's cause,) to abstain from any
remarks upon his conduct when the petition was at last presented in
Parliament. In this way he dextrously contrived to neutralize all our
efforts, until the close of the Session of 1829; soon after which he
embarked with his family for the West Indies.
Every exertion for Mary's relief having thus failed; and being fully
convinced from a twelvemonth's observation of her conduct, that she was
really a well-disposed and respectable woman; I engaged her, in December
1829, as a domestic servant in my own family. In this capacity she has
remained ever since; and I am thus enabled to speak of her conduct and
character with a degree of confidence I could not have otherwise done. The
importance of this circumstance will appear in the sequel.
From the time of Mr. Wood's departure to Antigua, in 1829, till June or
July last, no farther effort was attempted for Mary's relief. Some faint
hope was still cherished that this unconscionable man would at length
relent, and "in his own time and way," grant the prayer of the exiled
negro woman. After waiting, however, nearly twelve months longer, and
seeing the poor woman's spirits daily sinking under the sickening
influence of hope deferred, I resolved on a final attempt in her behalf,
through the intervention of the Moravian Missionaries, and of the Governor
of Antigua. At my request, Mr. Edward Moore, agent of the Moravian
Brethren in London, wrote to the Rev. Joseph Newby, their Missionary in
that island, empowering him to negotiate in his own name with Mr. Wood for
Mary's manumission, and to procure his consent, if possible, upon terms of
ample pecuniary compensation. At the same time the excellent and
benevolent William Allen, of the Society of Friends, wrote to Sir Patrick
Ross, the Governor of the Colony, with whom he was on terms of friendship,
soliciting him to use his influence in persuading Mr. Wood to consent: and
I confess I was sanguine enough to flatter myself that we should thus at
length prevail. The result proved, however, that I had not yet fully
appreciated the character of the man we had to deal with.
Mr. Newby's answer arrived early in November last, mentioning that he had
done all in his power to accomplish our purpose, but in vain; and that if
Mary's manumission could not be obtained without Mr. Wood's consent, he
believed there was no prospect of its ever being effected.
A few weeks afterwards I was informed by Mr. Allen, that he had received a
letter from Sir Patrick Ross, stating that he also had used his best
endeavours in the affair, but equally without effect. Sir Patrick at the
same time inclosed a letter, addressed by Mr. Wood to his Secretary, Mr.
Taylor, assigning his reasons for persisting in this extraordinary course.
This letter requires our special attention. Its tenor is as follows:--
"My dear Sir,
"In reply to your note relative to the woman Molly, I beg
you will have the kindness to oblige me by assuring his
Excellency that I regret exceedingly my inability to comply
with his request, which under other circumstances would
afford me very great pleasure.
"There are many and powerful reasons for inducing me to
refuse my sanction to her returning here in the way she
seems to wish. It would be to reward the worst species of
ingratitude, and subject myself to insult whenever she came
in my way. Her moral character is very bad, as the police
records will shew; and she would be a very troublesome
character should she come here without any restraint. She is
not a native of this country, and I know of no relation she
has here. I induced her to take a husband, a short time
before she left this, by providing a comfortable house in my
yard for them, and prohibiting her going out after 10 to 12
o'clock (our bed-time) without special leave. This she
considered the greatest, and indeed the only, grievance she
ever complained of, and all my efforts could not prevent it.
In hopes of inducing her to be steady to her husband, who
was a free man, I gave him the house to occupy during our
absence; but it appears the attachment was too loose to bind
her, and he has taken another wife: so on that score I do
her no injury.--In England she made her election, and
quitted my family. This I had no right to object to; and I
should have thought no more of it, but not satisfied to
leave quietly, she gave every trouble and annoyance in her
power, and endeavoured to injure the character of my family
by the most vile and infamous falsehoods, which was embodied
in a petition to the House of Commons, and would have been
presented, had not my friends from this island, particularly
the Hon. Mr. Byam and Dr. Coull, come forward, and disproved
what she had asserted.
"It would be beyond the limits of an ordinary letter to
detail her baseness, though I will do so should his
Excellency wish it; but you may judge of her depravity by
one circumstance, which came out before Mr. Justice Dyett,
in a quarrel with another female.
* * * * *
"Such a thing I could not have believed possible.[19]
[Footnote 19: I omit the circumstance here mentioned, because
it is too indecent to appear in a publication likely to be
perused by females. It is, in all probability, a vile
calumny; but even if it were perfectly true, it would not
serve Mr. Wood's case one straw.--Any reader who wishes it,
may see the passage referred to, in the autograph letter in
my possession. T. P.]
"Losing her value as a slave in a pecuniary point of view I
consider of no consequence; for it was our intention, had
she conducted herself properly and returned with us, to have
given her freedom. She has taken her freedom; and all I wish
is, that she would enjoy it without meddling with me.
"Let me again repeat, if his Excellency wishes it, it will
afford me great pleasure to state such particulars of her,
and which will be incontestably proved by numbers here, that
I am sure will acquit me in his opinion of acting unkind or
ungenerous towards her. I'll say nothing of the liability I
should incur, under the Consolidated Slave Law, of dealing
with a free person as a slave.
"My only excuse for entering so much into detail must be
that of my anxious wish to stand justified in his
Excellency's opinion.
"I am, my dear Sir,
Yours very truly,
JOHN A. WOOD.
"_20th Oct. 1830_."
"_Charles Taylor, Esq._
_&c. &c. &c._
"I forgot to mention that it was at her own special request
that she accompanied me to England--and also that she had a
considerable sum of money with her, which she had saved in
my service. I knew of £36 to £40, at least, for I had some
trouble to recover it from a white man, to whom she had lent
it.
"J. A. W."
Such is Mr. Wood's justification of his conduct in thus obstinately
refusing manumission to the Negro-woman who had escaped from his "house of
bondage."
Let us now endeavour to estimate the validity of the excuses assigned, and
the allegations advanced by him, for the information of Governor Sir
Patrick Ross, in this deliberate statement of his case.
1. To allow the woman to return home free, would, he affirms "be to reward
the worst species of ingratitude."
He assumes, it seems, the sovereign power of pronouncing a virtual
sentence of banishment, for the alleged crime of ingratitude. Is this then
a power which any man ought to possess over his fellow-mortal? or which
any good man would ever wish to exercise? And, besides, there is no
evidence whatever, beyond Mr. Wood's mere assertion, that Mary Prince owed
him or his family the slightest mark of gratitude. Her account of the
treatment she received in his service, _may_ be incorrect; but her simple
statement is at least supported by minute and feasible details, and,
unless rebutted by positive facts, will certainly command credence from
impartial minds more readily than his angry accusation, which has
something absurd and improbable in its very front. Moreover, is it not
absurd to term the assertion of her _natural rights_ by a slave,--even
supposing her to have been kindly dealt with by her "owners," and treated
in every respect the reverse of what Mary affirms to have been her
treatment by Mr. Wood and his wife,--"the _worst_ species of ingratitude?"
This may be West Indian ethics, but it will scarcely be received as sound
doctrine in Europe.
2. To permit her return would be "to subject himself to insult whenever
she came in his way."
This is a most extraordinary assertion. Are the laws of Antigua then so
favourable to the free blacks, or the colonial police so feebly
administered, that there are no sufficient restraints to protect a rich
colonist like Mr. Wood,--a man who counts among his familiar friends the
Honourable Mr. Byam, and Mr. Taylor the Government Secretary,--from being
insulted by a poor Negro-woman? It is preposterous.
3. Her moral character is so bad, that she would prove very troublesome
should she come to the colony "without any restraint."
"Any restraint?" Are there no restraints (supposing them necessary) short
of absolute slavery to keep "troublesome characters" in order? But this, I
suppose, is the _argumentum ad gubernatorem_--to frighten the governor.
She is such a termagant, it seems, that if she once gets back to the
colony _free_, she will not only make it too hot for poor Mr. Wood, but
the police and courts of justice will scarce be a match for her! Sir
Patrick Ross, no doubt, will take care how he intercedes farther for so
formidable a virago! How can one treat such arguments seriously?
4. She is not a native of the colony, and he knows of no relation she has
there.
True: But was it not her home (so far as a slave can have a home) for
thirteen or fourteen years? Were not the connexions, friendships, and
associations of her mature life formed there? Was it not there she hoped
to spend her latter years in domestic tranquillity with her husband, free
from the lash of the taskmaster? These considerations may appear light to
Mr. Wood, but they are every thing to this poor woman.
5. He induced her, he says, to take a husband, a short time before she
left Antigua, and gave them a comfortable house in his yard, &c. &c.
This paragraph merits attention. He "_induced her to take a husband_?" If
the fact were true, what brutality of mind and manners does it not
indicate among these slave-holders? They refuse to legalize the marriages
of their slaves, but _induce_ them to form such temporary connexions as
may suit the owner's conveniency, just as they would pair the lower
animals; and this man has the effrontery to tell us so! Mary, however,
tells a very different story, (see page 17;) and her assertion,
independently of other proof, is at least as credible as Mr. Wood's. The
reader will judge for himself as to the preponderance of internal evidence
in the conflicting statements.
6. He alleges that she was, before marriage, licentious, and even depraved
in her conduct, and unfaithful to her husband afterwards.
These are serious charges. But if true, or even partially true, how comes
it that a person so correct in his family hours and arrangements as Mr.
Wood professes to be, and who expresses so edifying a horror of
licentiousness, could reconcile it to his conscience to keep in the bosom
of his family so _depraved_, as well as so _troublesome_ a character for
at least thirteen years, and confide to her for long periods too the
charge of his house and the care of his children--for such I shall shew to
have been the facts? How can he account for not having rid himself with
all speed, of so disreputable an inmate--he who values her loss so little
"in a pecuniary point of view?" How can he account for having sold _five
other slaves_ in that period, and yet have retained this shocking
woman--nay, even have refused to sell her, on more than one occasion, when
offered her full value? It could not be from ignorance of her character,
for the circumstance which he adduces as a proof of her shameless
depravity, and which I have omitted on account of its indecency, occurred,
it would appear, not less than _ten years ago_. Yet, notwithstanding her
alleged ill qualities and habits of gross immorality, he has not only
constantly refused to part with her; but after thirteen long years, brings
her to England as an attendant on his wife and children, with the avowed
intention of carrying her back along with his maiden daughter, a young
lady returning from school! Such are the extraordinary facts; and until
Mr. Wood shall reconcile these singular inconsistencies between his
actions and his allegations, he must not be surprised if we in England
prefer giving credit to the former rather than the latter; although at
present it appears somewhat difficult to say which side of the alternative
is the more creditable to his own character.
7. Her husband, he says, has taken another wife; "so that on that score,"
he adds, "he does her no injury."